agentprovocateur
As Jofm5 mentions in his post and from what I've learnt from mates who are a bit more savvy than me around Vista and high end computing 4GB seems to be the comfortable level for running Vista Ultimate. I was going for 6GB but because I went for the high spec ATI Graphics card the Dell auto build/ordering system flagged up a conflict and advised me that I needed at least 8GB to run the system smoothly (get the best out of) with that card and the monitor so 8GB is what I have.
Vista Ultimate does appears to be a very hungry boy but I have to admit I am truly impressed thus far, the system is very very very fast and even when I'm working in programmes like Dreamweaver or Acrobat 8 the system doesn't even pause for breath and I can switch from programme to programme with absolutely no delay, the new PC even seems to get bored in simple applications like Word or Excel! I think the new i7 architecture also has a lot to do with the smoothness of the system as it's done away with the FSB 'bottleneck' have a look at Intels website for more info on it.
My old Dell with XP Pro sits next to the new system in my office and I normally have both running. I now look at the old kit and think 'well you did me proud for years but I've moved on now!'
As I've mentioned in a previous post I went for Vista Ultimate 64Bit with SP1 and I'm just waiting for SP2 to be released. My wife has Vista Home Premium 32Bit SP1 running on her Sony laptop with 2GB and it seems OK but just OK and to be honest it just isn't anywhere near as exciting as Vista Ultimate.
The new system did cost a bit (somewhere between 1000 and 2000Euro
) but I spec'd it as high as I could afford with the aim to get the best I could and to try and 'future proof' it a bit. I reckon this one will do me for a while now.
I also agree with Jofm5 about buying memory. I'll be buying new memory for the old Dell and I'll do that online through a specialist supplier rather than any High Street trader where you will most certainly get ripped off.